Mike Carey & Linda Carey Reading The City of Silk and Steel

In just six weeks or so, we’re delighted to be publishing The City of Silk and Steel, the stunning debut fantasy from the writing team of Mike Carey, his wife Linda and their daughter Louise.

Mike, of course, is the author of the Felix Castor novels, as well as being an acclaimed writer of comics and film. Linda is the author, under the pseudonym A. J. Lake, of the Darkest Age fantasy trilogy, and has also written for TV. And Louise, currently studying English Language and Literature at Oxford, is the co-writer (with Mike) of the graphic novel Confessions of a Blabbermouth, which was published under DC Comics’ Minx imprint.

Once, in a city known as Bessa, there was a sultan named Bokhari Al-Bokhari, who was thrown down by the zealots of the ascetic Hakkim Mehdad. The sultan, his wives and children were put to the sword, while his 365 concubines were sent to a neighbouring caliph as tribute, Hakkim having no use for the pleasures of the flesh.

But a day after the caravan had departed from Bessa, Hakkim discovered the terrible secret that the concubines had hidden from him. His reaction was swift and cruel.

The City of Silk and Steel is a wonderfully original book. Through a collection of short tales – seemingly disparate at first – that resolves undeniably into a single consistent narrative, the Careys weave a compelling tale of persecution and redemption, of despair and hope, courage and cunning, love and hatred, loyalty and betrayal. This is a fresh and original novel that somehow manages to exude all the familiarity of an old friend. The City of Silk and Steel feels like a book you read and loved back in the day, the story tickling at the edges of memory, taunting you with recollections that are just out of reach. We can’t wait to publish it.

The City of Silk and Steel is released on 21st March – but you can hear some of this wonderful book from the authors’ very mouths just next week. Mike and Linda will be presenting a session for the Spread the Word writers’ network, on the evening of Tuesday 12th February at the Holy Redeemer Church in Clerkenwell. Mike and Linda will be reading from The City of Silk and Steel and Mike will read from some of his solo work, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. Details can be found here.